Union Pacific Steam Locomotive #844 Sighting in Grandview, Texas

I had the privilege this week to see and photograph a real live working steam locomotive in action! It was Engine #844, the last regular production steam locomotive deployed by Union Pacific Railroad back in 1944. Union Pacific still operates it on tours as a marketing tool. A photographer friend of mine alerted me to it’s presence in Texas last week and then I found out that the train was coming through North Texas this week! I researched it and watched some videos of it, but had not originally planned to actually go see it in person since I would have to take time off from work. Thursday morning, as I sat at my desk with nary anything going on at work staring out the window at the perfect, beautiful sunny Autumn weather outside, I decided what the heck, you only live once, and it’s going to be stopping in Grandview shortly after noon, I’ll just take a long lunch & go see it, after all, this is a foamer’s dream! I contacted a local photographer friend who said they were going to see it in Fort Worth at 3, but that’d meant taking a full half-day vacation, so I decided to just go by myself down to Grandview. I figured a rural setting would make for better photography anyway.

I was very pleased with the photos I took and, using my camera to redevelop some of the raw images in b&w, I made period-looking images out of several by adding sepia and ISO noise. I took some more b&w photos with my film camera and will post later when I finish the roll, if any come out well. I also got a couple of good ones of downtown Grandview with it’s classic red-brick main street. As planned, I took one short video of the train as it departed, but it turned out rather crappy – not focused and a little over-exposed. I’ve very little practice shooting videos and my camera forces you to use the LCD screen, which was nearly impossible with the mid-day sun shining over my shoulder. You can watch two good videos of it below, though. The train was late, so I got to watch and take a few shots of three diesel freighters barreling through ahead of it. Afterwards, I raced back to Alvarado hoping to catch it in an overhead bridge shot, but just as I pulled up, it was highballing through before I could even get out of my car with my camera. Overall, a very good day playing hooky with my camera! Here are all the best photos I took in larger sizes.